Ecological Niche and Grinnellian Niche Concept Essay examples

he ecological meaning of niche comes from the meaning of niche as a recess in a wall for a statue,[7] which itself is probably derived from the Middle French word nicher, meaning to nest.[1][7] The term was coined by the naturalist Joseph Grinnell in 1917, in his paper "The niche relationships of the California Thrasher".[8] The Grinnellian niche concept embodies the idea that the niche of a species is determined by the habitat in which it lives and its accompanying behavioral adaptations. In other words, the niche is the sum of the habitat requirements and behaviors that allow a species to persist and produce offspring. For example, the behavior of the California Thrasher is consistent with the chaparral habitat it lives in—it breeds and feeds in the underbrush and escapes from its predators by shuffling from underbrush to underbrush. Its 'niche' is defined by the felicitous complementing of the thrasher's behavior and physical traits (camouflaging color, short wings, strong legs) with this habitat.[8]

This perspective of niche allows for the existence of both ecological equivalents and empty niches. An ecological equivalent to an organism is an organism from a different taxonomic group exhibiting similar adaptations in a similar habitat, an example being the different succulents found in American and African deserts, cactus and euphorbia.[9] As another example, the Anolis lizards of the Greater Antilles are a rare example of convergent evolution, adaptive radiation, and the existence of ecological equivalents: the Anolis lizards evolved in similar microhabitats independently of each other and resulted in the same ecomorphs across all four islands.

Eltonian niche[edit]
In 1927 Charles Sutherland Elton, a British ecologist, defined a niche as follows: "The 'niche' of an animal means its place in the biotic environment, its relations to food and enemies."[10]

Elton classified niches according to foraging activities ("food habits"):[11] "For instance there is the niche that is filled by birds of prey which eat small animals such as shrews and mice. In an oak wood this niche is filled by tawny owls, while in the open grassland it is occupied by kestrels. The existence of this carnivore niche is dependent on the further fact that mice form a definite herbivore niche in many different associations, although the actual species of mice may be quite different."[10]

Hutchinsonian niche[edit]

The shape of the bill of this Purple-throated Carib is complementary to the shape of the flower, enabling it to exploit the nectar as a resource
The Hutchinsonian niche is an n-dimensional hypervolume, where the dimensions are environmental conditions and resources, that define the requirements of an individual or a species to practice "its" way of life, more particularly, for its population to persist.[2] The "hypervolume" defines the multi-dimensional space of resources (e.g., light, nutrients, structure, etc.) available to (and specifically used by) organisms, and "all species other than those under consideration are regarded as part of the coordinate system."[12]

The niche concept was popularized by the zoologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson in 1957.[12] Hutchinson wanted to know why there are so many types of organisms in any one habitat. His work inspired many others to develop models to explain how many and how similar coexisting species could be within a given community, and led to the concepts of 'niche breadth' (the variety of resources or habitats used by a given species), 'niche partitioning' (resource differentiation by coexisting species), and 'niche overlap' (overlap of resource use by different species).[13]

Where three species eat some of the same prey, a statistical picture of each niche shows overlap in resource usage between three species, indicating where competition is strongest
Statistics were introduced into the Hutchinson niche by Robert MacArthur and Richard Levins using the 'resource-utilization' niche

Essay on :- From Biosphere to Ecological Niche !
The biosphere can be divided into a series of biogeographically regions, each inhabited by distinctive species of animals and plants. These organisms are able to move freely from place to place within each region, but not from one region to another, this being pre­vented by various natural barriers like river, lake, sea, mountain, desert, etc.
Such biogeographical regions include Eurasia, South America, Africa and Australia.
Although they

The grammar concept my group and I chose to do was verb tense. We based our lesson plan on a history book passage that we found very interesting. The reason we decided to do this lesson, is we feel students need to become familiar with using verbs in the past, present, and future. A history book is a great tool for this lesson, because students can change the past-tense passages into present and future. Our lesson is for ELD students in 3rd through 5th grade. The lesson introduces verb tense to

Josseline Zuniga
LaPrad
Honors Bio, 6
May 21 2013
Ecological Succession
Ecological succession is a naturally occurring phenomenon where life appears in either previously uninhabited areas of returns to a previously inhabited area destroyed by what is known as a disturbance. This can include such things as a forest fire, lava flow, a lake evaporating, and/or even newly exposed rocks. Primary succession is when vegetation appears in an area where there were no previous communities. It

jail? Another common belief is that the concept of rape culture blames all men for rape. However, that is not the case. It takes into fact that men also encounter rape and that women can commit rape. Rape culture aims to shift the blame from all men to all rapists.
Most are unaware of how culture influences rape yet rape culture is seen frequently throughout media. Rape culture is a major problem because it is often unacknowledged or accepted. Recognizing rape culture is the first step in

﻿Sustainability Determined by Ecological Footprinting
Submitted by: Wade David Quinn II
Submitted: March 3, 2014
Biology 112
Lab Day: Tuesday 2:15 (Regina Cozzi)
Ecological footprinting is the process of measuring human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. This is measured with respect to the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, as well as to discard the waste which is produced. Ecological footprinting has

﻿Tenghuang
Advanced reading and writing
1/19/2014
Freire’s essay
Response 1
According to the “Banking” concept of education, Freire states that education is suffering from narration sickness. Like Freire says, “education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.”(318). what he is saying is that “Banking” education by narrating forces students to memorize the knowledge mechanically. Therefore, the students have no

Game Concept
Hunter
Introduction
Hunter is an extremely addictive 2D side scrolling RPG game for an arcade machine,
you will face wave after wave of monsters from elder dragons to sabre­toothed
monsters before facing the ultimate boss in an attempt to prove yourself a true hunter to
your village, this game is different from others because of the vast array of levels to rank
through and the endless ability to customize your character from armours to long
swords.
Background
The

achievement of company objectives and the concept of total customer value. |
K3 | Explain the relevance of environmental scanning and analysis to organisational decision-making, the buying process in both customer and organisational markets. |
K4 | Explain the concepts of segmentation, targeting and product positioning and the variables used to segment consumer and organisational markets. |
K5 | Explain the interrelationships between the different elements of the marketing mix and their

﻿Michael Porter
Professor Tomb
English 1A
October 14, 2014
Concept of Hockey
One of the most creative sports all began on November 17, 1917 when five teams established the National Hockey League. Through rough times of developing a set schedule and finding enough players as well as supporting fans, the NHL struggled to successfully form an association until 1920. In 1920 another set of five times agreed to join, after the NHL formed

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